Tag Archives: President Trump

Good News For American Consumers

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On Friday, The Post Millennial posted an article about a policy announced by the Trump administration limiting Credit Card interest to 10 percent for one year. Considering the damage that the four years of President Biden did to America’s economy and to the pocketbooks of Americans, this is a welcome move.

The article reports:

In what will surely be hailed as a massive gift to America, President Donald Trump announced Friday night that all credit card interest rates will be capped at 10% for one year. This would lift the burden for many Americans who have been struggling under the weight of high-interest rate debt.

In a post, he said “Please be informed that we will no longer let the American Public be ‘ripped off’ by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%, and even more, which festered unimpeded during the Sleepy Joe Biden Administration. AFFORDABILITY! Effective January 20, 2026, I, as President of the United States, am calling for a one year cap on Credit Card Interest Rates of 10%. Coincidentally, the January 20th date will coincide with the one year anniversary of the historic and very successful Trump Administration.”

The article notes:

Many credit cards have an interest rate of 20% or higher, making it difficult for American borrowers to get ahead of those balances. Just paying the minimum balance on high interest rate credit cards means the debt won’t be paid down for decades in some cases. Forbes states that the average credit card interest rate is 25.32%.

Trump has been under pressure to create a more affordable economy for Americans, and for most who carry debt and are paying off that debt to creditors monthly, a drop in the interest rate could make a huge differance. As the economy has tightened up, many Americans choose to make purchases on credit rather than with ready funds and many online creditors have sprung up to make that easier than ever.

This is good news for Americans.

More Good Economic News

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On Thursday, CNBC posted an article about the October trade deficit.

The article reports:

  • The U.S. trade deficit six months into President Donald Trump’s tariffs tumbled to its lowest level since mid-2009, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.
  • The total was the lowest since the second quarter of 2009 as the U.S. was just coming out of the financial crisis and the Great Recession.

The U.S. trade deficit six months into President Donald Trump’s tariffs tumbled to its lowest level since mid-2009, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

With exports rising and imports falling, the trade shortfall was just $29.4 billion for October, down 39% from the prior month. Exports increased 2.6% while imports slipped 3.2%.

The total was the lowest since the second quarter of 2009 as the U.S. was just coming out of the financial crisis and the Great Recession.

The numbers reflect the trade activity since Trump levied his “liberation day” tariffs in April 2025. Economists and policymakers worried that the levies would work against the U.S. by inviting retaliation and slowing the movement of goods and services around the world. However, Trump has backed off many of the most severe tariff threats he made, and the data shows a strong market for U.S. products.

To be sure, the year-to-date deficit still was 7.7% higher than the same period in 2024.

The article concludes:

“The latest figures suggest firms are successfully doing more with less labor, giving more credence to a jobless expansion,” said Matthew Martin, senior economist at Oxford Economics. “Productivity will be key to determining the economy’s speed limit and inflationary dynamics. If productivity growth continues to accelerate due to tax cuts, deregulation, and technological advancements, including AI, economic growth can pick up without causing unwanted inflation.”

Though hiring has been weak, the Labor Department reported Thursday that layoffs are holding low.

Initial unemployment claims for the week ended Jan. 3 totaled 208,000, pushing the four-week moving average to its lowest since April 27, 2024.

President Trump is a businessman. When our Founding Fathers formed our government, they did not want career politicians. As we have seen, career politicians talk about problems and corruption, but they don’t seem to do anything about them.

Moving Toward Freedom In Venezuela

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On January 9th, Just the News posted an article that illustrates the success of the Trump administration’s policy toward Venezuela.

The article reports:

President Trump on Friday said Venezuela is releasing political prisoners and that because of their cooperation he canceled the planned second wave of attacks against the country.

“Venezuela is releasing large numbers of political prisoners as a sign of ‘Seeking Peace.’ This is a very important and smart gesture,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “The U.S.A. and Venezuela are working well together, especially as it pertains to rebuilding, in a much bigger, better, and more modern form, their oil and gas infrastructure.

“Because of this cooperation, I have cancelled the previously expected second Wave of Attacks, which looks like it will not be needed, however, all ships will stay in place for safety and security purposes. At least 100 Billion Dollars will be invested by BIG OIL, all of whom I will be meeting with today at The White House. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT.”

We don’t need to invade Venezuela–we just need the threat. As long as the government is cooperating with the U.S., we may be able to move the country toward freedom.

I Told You So Just Doesn’t Cut It

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This post is based on an article posted at The Federalist on December 23. Obviously, I am a bit late to the game, but it is an important article.

The article reports:

Fulton County, Georgia, recently made an admission that should have commanded national attention. During a hearing before the Georgia State Election Board, county officials acknowledged that approximately 315,000 early ballots cast in the 2020 presidential election were unlawfully certified yet were nonetheless included in Georgia’s final, official results, in a race Joe Biden was officially declared to have won by just 11,779 votes.

The admission arose from a challenge filed by David Cross, an election integrity activist, who alleged that Fulton County violated Georgia election law in its handling of early voting. Under state statute, each ballot scanner is required to produce tabulation tapes at the close of voting, and poll workers must sign those tapes to certify the reported totals. These signed tapes are not merely an administrative safeguard. They are central to determining whether the vote count itself is legitimate.

So I guess that phone call from President Trump to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was justified! However, that is not the point.

The article concludes:

Cross, whose persistence brought these revelations to light, has asked the State Election Board to decertify Fulton County’s 2020 advanced voting results for the historical record. His request is not aimed at changing past outcomes. We cannot undo the fact that for four years Joe Biden was president. But an official acknowledgment that Fulton County’s vote certification, and by extension the Georgia outcome, was invalid would place a permanent mark on the deliberate misconduct of those responsible and the institutional failure that enabled it, while reinforcing the principle that election law is not optional.

If the State Election Board declines to act, this episode may quietly fade from memory, leaving nothing to prevent it from happening again. Democracies do not fail when rules are broken. They fail when no one is held accountable.

Let’s put the people in jail who were responsible for this fraud, and let’s have an honest election this year and in 2028!

Five Things President Trump Did This Year To Protect Children

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On Saturday, The Liberty Daily posted a list of five things President Trump did in 2025 that the media somehow overlooked.

This is the list:

1. Pardoning the FACE Act Prisoners

2. Expanding the Mexico City Policy

3. Classifying Transgender Procedures for Kids as Human Rights Violations

4. Ending Taxpayer-Funded Abortions for Illegal Migrant Children

5. Upgrading Human Trafficking Hotline

The FACE Act prisoners were the people arrested outside abortion clinics for praying or encouraging women to keep their babies. The Mexico City Police forbids the use of taxpayer money to pay for overseas abortions.

The article concludes with information regarding the upgrading of the Human Trafficking Hotline:

The Trump administration has chosen a new provider to run its human trafficking hotline after complaints that the Biden administration’s provider failed to answer calls from victims, The Daily Signal first reported.

HHS’ Administration for Children and Families announced a five-year, projected $35 million grant to Compass Connections to run the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

HHS received complaints from victims and state attorneys general that with the previous provider under the Biden administration, wait times were too long, calls were dropped, and victims could not rely on the hotline to deliver the necessary quality of service.

“State attorneys general were telling us that third-party tips were not getting delivered to law enforcement, so their investigations into human trafficking were hindered,” acting Administration for Children and Families Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison told The Daily Signal, “and they had a much harder time getting criminals off the streets of human trafficking, to get information where it needs to go on time in an accurate way, so that law enforcement can make arrests and end human trafficking.”

The award includes an increase of $1 million annually and will bring annual funding to $7 million, showing Trump’s commitment to protecting survivors of human trafficking, according to Gradison.

We are moving toward better protecting our babies and children.

A New Level Of Insanity

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On Sunday, The Epoch Times posted an article reporting that the National Trust for Historic Preservation has filed a lawsuit stating that the ballroom construction project at the White House violates several federal statutes. Does anyone think this lawsuit would be filed if it were anyone other than President Trump doing the construction?

The article reports:

The National Trust is also asking for an injunction to halt work on the project “until the necessary federal commissions have reviewed and approved the project’s plans; adequate environmental review has been conducted; and Congress has authorized the Ballroom’s construction,” according to the complaint.

The National Trust describes itself in the complaint as a private, charitable, educational nonprofit corporation that Congress chartered in 1949. Its purpose is “to further the historic preservation policy of the United States and to promote the public’s awareness of and ability to comment on any activity that might damage or destroy our nation’s architectural heritage.” The trust has filed preservation lawsuits against several presidential administrations, the complaint said.

The lawsuit lists several federal agencies and those who head them as defendants.

The defendants are: the National Park Service and its acting director, Jessica Bowron; John Stanwich, superintendent of the White House and President’s Park; the Department of the Interior and its secretary, Doug Burgum; the General Services Administration and its acting administrator, Michael Rigas; and Trump.

The complaint said the demolition of the East Wing of the White House to make room for the ballroom facility began in late October without congressional approval or approval from federal commissions responsible for development oversight in the nation’s capital. The federal government did not carry out required environmental studies, nor did it give the public an opportunity for comment, the complaint said.

In other words, let’s delay the project until President Trump is out of office. The project does not use taxpayer money and provides a ballroom that is desperately needed. I also suspect that all building permits are in order. That should be the end of the discussion.

Common Sense

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On Saturday, Sundance posted an article at The Conservative Treehouse titled, “I Fully Support Donald Trump Because the Alternative Is to Support a Republican.” That is the truth.

The article notes:

When the Tea Party surfaced in 2010, the grassroots voter base (unvoiced in DC) did not have a figurehead. So, the UniParty apparatus weaponized the DOJ, IRS and regulatory agencies to target, divide and destroy us.

When the Tea Party reassembled in 2016, the grassroots voter base (unvoiced in DC) now had Donald Trump. So, the same UniParty weaponized the DOJ, FBI and Intelligence Community to target, divide and destroy him first (Spygate, Russiagate, Impeachments etc.), until they could get back to targeting us (Arctic Frost).

The difference between the Tea Party targeting in 2010, and MAGA targeting 2016-through today, is the pesky impediment called Donald Trump.

Review the 15-year history and you will see these commonalities, including DC’s use of Main Justice and the FBI.

The McConnell-minded Republicans were happy to see the Tea Party targeted in 2011/2012. The same is true for the targeting of MAGA in later years.

This core reality is why I support President Trump; indeed, I actually cherish his fighting for us, because the alternative is reliance on our Republican abusers.

The article concludes:

If we, well, really he, does not get that thing accomplished in the next three years, well, it’s unlikely to happen. That clock ticking raises the stakes for us and makes policy issues sensitive and urgent. This is an entirely understandable sentiment.

I fully support Donald Trump, because the alternative is dependency on a Republican.

Don’t forget to pray.

Today I pray for our nation. ♦ I ask that You give our President wisdom beyond his own understanding, and the courage to choose the right path no matter how narrow the gate. ♦ I pray for all in authority over us that You would give them grace and strength to stand against the temptation to use power as a weapon, but rather to carry it reverently as one would a child. ♦ I pray for the spiritual leaders of our country, that they would hear Your voice and know Your heart. ♦ I pray they would lead from their knees, and by that simple grace bring each one of us to our knees before Your throne. ♦ Have mercy on our nation Lord; In Jesus name, Amen

The Washington Republicans do not represent average Americans. They represent the Chamber of Commerce, the business elite, big pharma, China, etc. The coalition that President Trump has put together represents the people who have to live under the laws that Congress passes. We are not allowed to partake of insider trading, we don’t have money from questionable sources coming into our Political Action Committees (PAC’s), campaigns or businesses that we are involved in . We can’t sell ridiculous artwork for millions of dollars. It’s time that the people of America ran the country–not a bunch of people who don’t live in the real world and think they should totally control us.

One Of The Problems In The First Trump Administration

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On Thursday, Real Clear Investigations posted an article titled, “EXCLUSIVE: How Trump’s Own Appointees Aided Russiagate Plot Against Him.” It was fairly evident from the beginning that the Russian collusion charge was made-up to hurt the President, but several members of his staff who suspected the evidence was shoddy failed to inform President Trump. Thank God President Trump has a different staff this time around.

The article reports:

Former Special Counsel John Durham, former National Security Adviser John Bolton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and former CIA Director Gina Haspel dismissed or buried evidence that cast doubt on a foundational document of the Russigate hoax – the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) prepared in the waning days of the Obama administration.

Durham, who was appointed by Attorney General William Barr, stopped the declassification and release of key exculpatory evidence debunking the ICA on the eve of the 2020 election, which has not been reported previously.

…While these Trump-appointed officials may not have initiated the weaponization of the CIA against Trump, they facilitated it by hiding evidence that exposed the claims that Russia tried to help Trump as a fraud. By obscuring Joe Biden’s own role in perpetrating the hoax, they may have helped Obama’s vice president win the close race for the presidency in 2020.

“The Russiagate betrayal continued in plain sight,” said former Trump national security adviser J.D. Gordon, with some in Trump’s own cabinet letting him twist in the wind instead of daylighting secreted material that would have cleared the clouds of suspicion hanging over his head before the 2020 election.

The suppression can be traced back at least until mid-2018. That’s when Fred Fleitz, who was National Security Adviser John Bolton’s chief of staff, heard that investigators at his former employer, the House Intelligence Committee, were probing the raw intelligence in the ICA supporting the assessment’s key judgments.

…Fleitz thought Bolton should be briefed on the unpublished House report, which undermined the prevailing narrative that Trump and Moscow had colluded during the 2016 election campaign. When he returned to his West Wing office, Fleitz sat down at his classified computer and wrote a synopsis of the review and gave it to his boss.

But Bolton did not, in turn, brief the president. “He didn’t do anything with it. He never told Trump, and I never heard anything about it again,” Fleitz told RCI.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. It is disturbing. The first Trump administration included a number of people who were working against the President and his agenda. It could also be said that they were working against America–interfering with the smooth transition of power. No corporation would put up with that. It’s a shame that the President could not trust his own staff.

How Fake News Works

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On Tuesday, Hot Air posted an article illustrating how the mainstream media can manipulate an ordinary event into a full-blown crisis or racial incident.

This was the X post that began the incident:

The implication is that it has to be President Trump’s fault and this proves that he is a racist (regardless of awards for promoting racial harmony he won before becoming a Republican).

Well, not so fast.

Hot Air reports what actually happened:

Newsweek blasted out a headline implying the Trump administration “quietly removed a memorial” for Black WWII soldiers.

But — shocker — when you scroll all the way down, buried under piles of narrative-fluff, they finally admit the truth:

??? ?????? ??? ???????.

??? ??????? ??? ????? “???????.”

??’? ???? ??? ?? ???? ?????.

That’s it. That’s the scandal.

They manufactured a racial outrage story out of a museum rotation schedule.

And they were counting on people not reading past the headline — because that’s how the media plays the game.

??? ????? ????? ??? ?????, ????????, ??? ?????????? ?? ??? ???? ???? ????? — ???? ???? ??????????? “????????.”

And if you still trust the press at face value after stunts like this… you’re not paying attention.

You don’t hate the media enough.

That is only one example of the things the media reports that are largely responsible for the “Trump Derangement System” we currently have in our country despite the amazing accomplishments of President Trump. Would you rather live under the Biden economy?

About Those Chickens–The Ones That Are Coming Home To Roost

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It is becoming obvious why the Democrats were willing to go to the lengths they went to in 2020 to keep President Trump out of the White House. It is also becoming obvious  why the Democrats were willing to use unprecedented lawfare to make sure he would not be re-elected in 2024. The did not want anyone looking into the political and financial scandals of the last fifteen years.

There is a lot of information currently bubbling beneath the surface about violations of the Constitution in areas of surveillance, but also about some of the financial shenanigans involving NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) and some charities, including the Clinton Foundation. Without President Trump encouraging investigations of political wrongdoing within the government, very few of these investigations would actually result in any action actually taken. It remains to be seen if anyone will actually face consequences for their corruption, but without President Trump, we probably wouldn’t even be aware of the corruption. There is a danger in leaving the violations of the Constitution and the financial shenanigans unpunished. If left alone, it will continue to flourish. As I write this, there are some grand jury referrals that we need to watch carefully. What happens in the cases headed toward various grand juries will be an indication of what is to come. I can only hope we have enough uncorrupt people, judges, and leaders left in America to follow through on the evidence we now have.

The fight is not over, and the corruption is still with us. We can only hope that if a Republican becomes the next president, he will be willing to continue the fight. There is one potential candidate, currently below the radar who, if elected, would be part of the problem–not part of the solution. I am not ready to name names, but I would wholeheartedly support a Vance/Rubio ticket in 2028.

The Hysteria Continues

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The political left’s hysteria over the addition of a ballroom to the White House continues. Those objecting choose to overlook the fact that the addition is paid for by private money and that the addition is needed to provide a place for larger gatherings. Meeting in tents outside because the White House is limited in the number of people it can host is simply not appropriate. There are not that many months when the climate of Washington, D.C., is all that comfortable outside–humidity, heat. and cold are normal occurrences. Those objecting also seem to forget that additions and changes to the White House have occurred multiple times over the years–paid for with taxpayer money.

On Thursday, Townhall reported:

New York AG Letitia James vowed to make a name for herself by prosecuting President Trump, vowing to “get” the former President and going so far as to try and seize his properties. Frank Luntz warned her that such a move would make Trump more popular with voters. Luntz was right, and now James is facing charges of mortgage fraud.

The Left is calling that prosecution a “weaponization” of our justice system. That’s adorable for a variety of reasons, of course. Enforcing the law is not a “weaponization” of anything, and Democrats spent years telling us “no one is above the law.”

What they meant by that, of course, is that Republicans aren’t above the law. Democrats, on the other hand, are.

Rather than learning from this — after all, many people warned them that weaponizing the government against Republicans would backfire — Democrats are doubling down.

Case in point: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries just vowed to investigate the people who made private donations to President Trump’s White House ballroom project.

The article notes:

Jeffries said, without evidence, that the donors were probably using the donations to curry favor with the Trump administration.

“More likely, this is part of what Donald Trump has been doing since day one of his presidency: running the largest pay-to-play scheme in the history of the country. And probably soliciting donations from people who’ve got business before the United States government,” Jeffries said.

“And all of this is going to have to be investigated. It will. All of this will have to be uncovered. It will. And these people are going to be held accountable, no matter how long it takes,” Jeffries continued. “And that’s a warning to all of these people participating in this scheming to manipulate taxpayer dollars and, of course, to destroy the people’s house. The White House belongs to the American people. It doesn’t belong to Donald Trump.”

Right. And 75 million Americans voted for Donald Trump to be president. It’s their house, too. Hakeem Jeffries went on MSNBC and threatened people who are making lawful donations to improve the White House.

President Trump was a successful businessman before entering politics. In the circle of people he hung around with, a donation of several thousand dollars is probably not even noteworthy. The idea that this is pay-to-play is ridiculous, particularly since the Democrats in Congress never seemed to question President Biden’s seemingly endless supply of funds.

Solving The Rare Earth Trade Problem

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On Monday, The Epoch Times reported that President Trump has signed a trade agreement with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese which will counter China’s monopoly on rare earth minerals.

The article reports:

U.S. President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Oct. 20 signed a rare earths agreement at the White House, outlining plans for both countries to jointly invest more than $3 billion in critical minerals projects over the next six months.

The White House announced that recoverable resources from these projects are valued at an estimated $53 billion, as both countries work to counter China’s global dominance in the sector.

Trump on Oct. 20 welcomed Albanese to the White House for their first formal meeting to discuss a wide range of bilateral issues, including trade, defense, and the nuclear submarine partnership.

The article concludes:

Australia views China as an increasing threat.

During the meeting, Trump noted that Beijing is paying high tariffs to the United States. He also reiterated his plans to meet with Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping soon.

“I think China has been very respectful of us,” Trump said, while highlighting the billions of dollars in tariffs paid by the communist country.

Existing 55 percent levies will increase to 155 percent if Xi and Trump don’t come to terms when the two meet in South Korea in the next two weeks.

“I expect we’ll probably work out a deal with President Xi of China,” Trump said. “It’s going to be very exciting. I think we’re going to work something out that’s good for both countries.”

Trump said the United States has leverage because domestic companies sell many airplanes, parts, and components to China.

“They threatened us with rare earths, and I threatened them with tariffs, but I could also threaten them with many other things, like airplanes,” Trump said. “You know about airplanes because they can’t get parts for their airplanes. We build their airplanes.”

He suggested China is in a losing position regarding trade.

“I believe that they’re in big trouble, and I don’t want them to be in big trouble,” Trump said.

China has been working to build a monopoly on rare earth minerals for many years. It was shortsighted of western nations not to counter their efforts much earlier. Hopefully this effort is not too late.

A Victory At The United Nations

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This may only be a temporary victory, but it is a victory. On October 17th, World Net Daily reported that pressure from Secretary of State Rubio and the State Department team blocked a move to place a carbon tax on shipping worldwide. Unfortunately, the vote delayed the tax–when those behind the tax think they have the votes, it will be voted on again.

The article reports:

President Donald Trump has emerged with a win from a fight with European officials over their agenda to create another carbon tax and raise the cost of items shipped to America.

It was in the United Nations where globalists who adhere to the ideology called climate change, called global warming before the warming essentially stopped, hatched a plan to charge shipping companies for their travels.

“Huge push by @SecRubio and the State Dept team. Strong diplomacy that put American business and consumers first WON THE DAY over an ideological carbon tax from the UN and EU,” Mike Walz wrote on social media.

…Fifty-seven countries voted in favor of delaying the adoption vote and 49 voted against. There were 21 abstentions.

The Washington Examiner explained the decision was “a shock, as many member states of the IMO, a London-based specialized agency within the U.N., were confident there were enough votes to adopt the measure as international maritime law.”

Trump has been opposing the new world taxation plan for months, and recently escalated his objections.

Waltz, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said the delay was to the component of the “net-zero framework.”

As I have previously stated, we do not yet have the reliable technology for the “net-zero framework.” If we ever create that technology, I will be one of the first to support net zero!

Random Thoughts On President Trump’s Peace Deal

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John F. Kennedy once stated, “Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.” The mainstream media’s reaction to President Trump’s peace deal and the reaction of some of the prominent Democrat politicians confirms that truth.

Senator Elizabeth posted the following on X:

For two excruciating years, I have called for the return of the hostages brutally kidnapped on October 7th and held in Gaza.

Today is a good day. Surviving Israeli hostages are finally home and reuniting with loved ones. I’m thinking of them and their families on this joyful day and praying for their full recovery. I’m also grieving for all those who can’t come home today.

Today must also be an important step toward lasting peace in the region — peace for both Israelis and Palestinians. We must end the war in Gaza, surge humanitarian aid, and negotiate a two-state solution now.

Did she really think that her words were going to get the hostages released?

This is what former President Obama posted on X:

Notice that he fails to give credit to President Trump. He is still the petty, self-centered person he was as President, only now he is searching for relevance.

On Sunday, The New York Post reported:

Hillary Clinton heaped some rare praise on her former arch-enemy Donald Trump for his handling of the Gaza peace deal in a recent interview.

“I really commend President Trump and his administration,” Clinton told CBS News 24/7 Friday.

“As well as Arab leaders in the region, for making the commitment to the 20-point plan and seeing a path forward for what’s often called the day after,” she added.

Searching for relevance?

It is interesting that President Trump is more popular in Israel than he is in America. The people who were yelling ‘stop the genocide’ have been surprising quiet (as the streets of Gaza erupt in chaos with Hamas killing anyone they believe collaborated with Israel and rival gangs vying for control). I wonder if Hamas has deliberately killed more civilians in Gaza than the Israeli Defense Forces have accidentally killed.

They Are Home!

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All of the living hostages who were taken on October 7, 2023, were returned to Israel today. I can’t imagine what their families are feeling.

The Washington Free Beacon reports:

Israel reclaimed its 20 living hostages early Monday after they spent more than two years in Hamas captivity, a triumphant moment that marked the first stage of President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan.

Video footage showed some of the hostages speaking to their families from video calls in Gaza before being turned over to the Israel Defense Forces. The first seven were released to the IDF around 2 a.m. Eastern Time, with the remaining 13 living hostages joining them roughly two hours later. All of the living hostages arrived on Israeli soil by 5 a.m. Monday.

The article includes some beautiful pictures of family reunions.

The article notes:

The hostage release is part of a ceasefire deal that also requires Hamas to return the remains of deceased hostages, though it’s unclear exactly when that will happen. Israel released around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners as part of the deal’s initial phase and withdrew its military forces from around half the territory of Gaza.

Trump will leave Israel to attend a summit on the deal scheduled to take place in Egypt on Monday. It is there that world leaders are expected to discuss the peace plan’s subsequent stages, including Hamas’s disarmament and the formal end of the war. Questions remain on those details, but Trump expressed confidence that the ceasefire will hold.

“The war is over,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday evening. “We have a lot of verbal guarantees, and I don’t think they’re going to want to disappoint me.”

If I were Hamas, I would understand that as a threat.

The article concludes:

Trump made good on his promise to help bring the hostages home by issuing several strict deadlines to Hamas while fully backing Israel’s war operations in Gaza. The pressure campaign worked, squeezing the terror group and eroding its support among Arab nations, particularly the Hamas-friendly Qatar.

Israel’s government approved the deal at Netanyahu’s urging last week, and in discussions with negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the Jewish state ensured that its military will remain in parts of Gaza to prevent terrorism and stop Hamas from rearming. The IDF will retain control of the territory along Gaza’s border with Egypt—a central pipeline for weapons—and other areas that include Hamas strongholds like Gaza City and Khan Younis, according to the Times of Israel.

Witkoff and Kushner addressed hundreds of thousands of Israelis at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening. They praised the “heroism” of the IDF and the “exceptional” state of Israel. The crowd broke out in chants of “Thank you Kushner! Thank you Trump!”

This isn’t the end; it is only the beginning.

Let’s Hope This Is Possible

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On Saturday, Breitbart posted an article reporting that President Trump is attempting to make sure our military gets paid during the Sombrero Shutdown orchestrated by Senator Schumer.

The article reports:

President Donald Trump is taking steps to ensure that U.S. service members receive their paychecks next week despite the ongoing government shutdown, directing his administration to find and allocate available funds as congressional gridlock threatens military pay. 

…The government shutdown, now in its second week, began October 1 after Senate Democrats rejected multiple times a clean continuing resolution to maintain funding at prior levels. President Trump has consistently stated that essential national security personnel — including 1.3 million active-duty service members and hundreds of thousands of National Guard members — will remain on duty. However, congressional aides told Reuters that legislation must pass by Monday, October 13, for payroll to be processed in time for the standard mid-month pay date of October 15.

Trump’s post followed comments by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who told Punchbowl News “every day gets better” for Democrats during the shutdown. Trump responded, “I DISAGREE! If nothing is done, because of ‘Leader’ Chuck Schumer and the Democrats, our Brave Troops will miss the paychecks they are rightfully due on October 15th.”

The article concludes:

Despite these pressures, Senate Democrats have repeatedly voted to block a short-term funding bill that would reopen the government. Meanwhile, reports indicate that several members of the Democratic caucus plan to attend a Napa Valley retreat hosted by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee set for Monday and Tuesday, October 13-14, prompting criticism from Republicans who contend the party is “vacationing during a shutdown.”

Trump’s latest action aims to bypass the impasse and ensure that military personnel are not left unpaid due to political disputes in Congress. “The Radical Left Democrats should OPEN THE GOVERNMENT,” he wrote, “and then we can work together to address Healthcare, and many other things that they want to destroy.”

A number of pundits have stated that they expect the shutdown to end after the No Kings protest on October 18. This is a left-wing paid protest with a goal of destabilizing America. The theory is that if the Democrats open the government before the protest, they will be among the people and things protested against. Please understand that the majority of the protesters are paid to protest. This i s not grass roots–it’s AstroTurf!

Forgetting History

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On Wednesday, Jonathan Turley posted an article about President Trump using the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) to deal with illegal immigrants in our major cities. Using federal forces to enforce law and order is not a new concept.

The article reports:

As a native Chicagoan, I must confess that I have little patience for Mayor Brandon Johnson, a politician who has been a disaster for the city. One of the most unpopular mayors in the city’s history, Johnson has been using the increased ICE operations to try to ride a wave of rage back into popularity. His language has become more and more inflammatory in calling for citizens to “resist” and “fight” federal law enforcement. Now, he is claiming the authority to not only mandate “ICE-free zones” in the city but to arrest federal officers.

Ironically, Johnson has declared that President Donald Trump wants a “rematch of the Civil War.” However, it is Johnson who is pursuing antebellum policies. It was the South that claimed independence from the Union and fought to expel federal troops.

Johnson signed a ridiculous executive order creating “ICE-Free Zones” to ban federal agents from using city-owned properties and property of unwilling private owners as staging areas for immigration enforcement.

The federal government has its own jurisdictional authority and can enter city and private property in pursuit of lawful operations. In terms of “staging” operations, the Constitution, not Brandon Johnson, protects citizens from having their property seized or used for the quartering of troops.

Most importantly, the City of Chicago cannot arrest federal officers who are conducting federal operations. This point was correctly noted earlier by Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling, who said that CPD officers will not arrest federal law enforcement, “because someone deems what they are doing is illegal.”

Nevertheless, Johnson was back to his signature chest-pounding bravado: “We’re going to see people in court. As far as other authority that allows for us to be able to enforce this ordinance, we’re exploring.”

This is posturing by someone who wants to be re-elected.

The article concludes:

Threatening the arrest of federal officers enforcing federal law is not defending the rule of law or democracy. Indeed, a similar claim was made by Southern politicians not only before the Civil War but during the Civil Rights era. It was governors like George Wallace who insisted that he could stop federal officials and the National Guard from enforcing federal law.

Likewise, it was George Wallace who objected to the “unwelcomed, unwanted, unwarranted, and force-induced intrusion” in his state by federal law enforcement.

Before Johnson attempts to arrest federal officials, he might want to take another look at the Constitution and review some history on the subject. Wallace also tried to ride the wave of rage to power after “standing at the schoolhouse door in person, if necessary.” It did not work. The federal government prevailed, and Wallace was left as a tragic relic of history.

Who does the Mayor think is paying for the illegal aliens in his city? If the taxpayers are smart, they will quickly vote him out of office.

We Can Make Things Here In America!

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On Tuesday, Real Clear Politics posted an commentary about manufacturing in America. The commentary relates the story of the Sharpie, now manufactured almost entirely in America.

The commentary explains:

President Donald Trump loves a Sharpie pen, and now he has all the more reason to love the company that makes them.

The president signed the flurry of executive orders he issued the day he returned to office with a Sharpie.

He’s used them for years, finding them more reliable than fancier pens.

Now we know they have another merit, too: They’re almost entirely made in America.

Only the felt tip of a Sharpie comes from abroad — it’s made in Japan, according to the Wall Street Journal’s Natasha Khan, who published an eye-opening article on the penmaker last week.

What makes Newell Brands, the corporation behind the Sharpie, so newsworthy is its success saving money — and holding down consumer prices — by making the pens in America.

Newell was once as dazzled as other manufacturers by the prospect of making its products more cheaply in Asia.

But in 2018, CFO Chris Peterson looked into producing the latest Sharpie, a gel version, at the company’s factory in Maryville, Tennessee.

The commentary notes:

Ford Motor Company famously discovered it could sell more cars by paying its workers well enough to afford the automobiles they were making.

Long before globalization, America’s national economy boomed thanks to a virtuous cycle of rising wages, more technological investment, an increasingly educated workforce, and higher consumer spending on American-made goods.

Success at home led to success abroad: America was an exporting superpower that “ran persistent trade surpluses” from 1870 to 1970, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis relates.

Trump wants to make American manufacturing great again.

But tariffs, which can help, are not enough by themselves.

The Sharpie case shows domestic investment is critical.

The commentary concludes:

For most American manufacturers, private investment is enough — though even then, government must consider what unfair practices other countries may adopt to lure investment away from our shores.

There’s also a role for government in ensuring a reasonably level playing field at home, so investment isn’t incentivized out of manufacturing and into other sectors without the heavy upfront costs of plants and machinery.

Yet the Newell Brands example shows business leaders themselves can work miracles and defy globalization’s laws of gravity when they put capital behind America’s factories and workers.

We can bring manufacturing back to America.

It Pays To Have A Businessman In The White House

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We are in the second week of the government shutdown that began October 1st. I am still predicting that it will end soon, but it really doesn’t look that way. So who is being hurt by the shutdown, and what can be done about it?

On Tuesday, Legal Insurrection reported:

President Donald Trump announced he will use tariff revenue to cover the Women & Infants, and Children Food Program (WIC) during the Schumer Shutdown.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X:

The Democrats are so cruel in their continual votes to shut down the government that they forced the WIC program for the most vulnerable women and children to run out this week.

Thankfully, President Trump and the White House have identified a creative solution to transfer resources from Section 232 tariff revenue to this critical program.

The Trump White House will not allow impoverished mothers and their babies to go hungry because of the Democrats’ political games.

I believe that the shutdown is a losing issue for Democrats. During the next few days, they will attempt to flip the narrative and blame the shutdown on the Republicans. If that doesn’t work, the shutdown will end.

The article notes:

CNN mentioned that the tariffs land in a “general fund managed by the Treasury Department.”

Ending Partisan Partnerships

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On Monday, American Greatness reported that FBI Director Kash Patel has ended the partnership between the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This is good news. The ADL is not a neutral player.

The article reports:

FBI Director Kash Patel has formally cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) that were enacted under former director James Comey, saying, “The FBI won’t partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs.”

Patel accused Comey of writing “love letters” to the ADL and of embedding FBI agents within the group that has recently been under fire from Republican lawmakers for listing Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA (TPUSA) organization as an extremist group.

The ADL had described TPUSA as being tied to, “a range of right-wing extremists and has generated support from anti-Muslim bigots, alt-lite activists and some corners of the white supremacist alt-right.”

The article notes:

The FBI also announced that it is cutting its ties with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) over the organization’s history of labeling conservative groups and individuals as extremists.

America First Legal, a conservative nonprofit law firm, has documented the close coordination between the SPLC and the former Biden Justice Department, including training and data access.

Both the ADL and SPLC are accused of flagging political targets for the Biden DOJ  and contributing to the weaponization of government against parents who spoke out against school boards or activists who peacefully protested near abortion clinics.

The FBI has been arresting criminals (as they are supposed to do) since President Trump took office. As of March, the FBI had arrested three people on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List. During 2024, the Biden administration arrested none of the Ten Most Wanted. Obviously, the focus of the FBI needed to change, and it has.

What They Really Wanted

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The raid on Mar-a-Lago in April 2022 was puzzling in some ways. The FBI had never before raided a former President’s home, particularly when negotiations for documents were ongoing. The raid included pictures (which we later learned were staged) of numerous documents said to be highly classified. But the raid never really made sense. Now we are learning the actual reason behind the raid (other than to discredit President Trump).

On Sunday, The Gateway Pundit reported:

As The Gateway Pundit reported back in August 2022, new details on the raid of Mar-a-Lago may offer an explanation on what the FBI was looking for and why the FBI has not released the Spygate documents as they were ordered to when President Trump left office.

Investigative reporter Paul Sperry had his Twitter account taken down for the second time the week of the Democrat deep state raid on Mar-a-Lago.

Sperry had his Twitter account taken down that week after he tweeted about the Mar-a-Lago raid and what the FBI was allegedly looking for. The crooked FBI and DOJ was hoping to find and destroy documents to prevent Americans from seeing their criminal acts and attempted coup of the sitting US President.

According to Paul Sperry, the FBI agents spent 9 hours looking for details President Trump took with him on the Crossfire Hurricane FBI spying scandal.

The article contains a download of the document in questions as well as a summary of the document.

The article includes the following synopsis:

** There was NO evidence that Putin wanted Trump to win.
** There is NO evidence Trump worked with Putin in anyway to swing the election.
** Leadership at the FBI, CIA, and Democrat leaders including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama all lied to the American public in their attempt to bring down the Trump administration.
** President Trump survived a coup of gigantic proportions that was nothing short of a miracle.
** Numerous top officials committed crimes and participated in the attempted coup.

The article concludes:

…Maria Bartiromo: Lisa Monaco got a big job now. She’s the President of Global Affairs at Microsoft, which I reported first. Look, I’ve got the majority staff report right here on the intelligence community assessment of the Russia influence campaign targeting the 2016 election. You believe that was one of the things they were looking for when they raided Mara at a lago, but it wasn’t there?

Devin Nunes: Yeah, that’s right, because that was supposed to be declassified. We asked President Trump to declassify that in 2020. We were told that it was declassified. We thought that that information was going to be at the archives like all the information should. But then when we asked the archives about it and other people asked the archives for it, it wasn’t there. That document is very damaging. It’s a 40-page report that House Republicans worked on for a long time, not only my committee, and now the current chairman, Rick Crawford, was able to get that information out. It’s a very damning report that showed what? That Russia didn’t think that Trump was going to win, which I think we all know. Once again, just common sense in ’16, why would the Russians be helping someone that they didn’t think was going to win?

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. There need to be arrests.

Changing Something That Was Not Being Used For Its Original Purpose

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On Tuesday, The American Thinker posted an article about the Executive Order by President Trump to impose a $100,000 annual fee on H-1B visas. This is a step toward protecting American workers. Originally the H-1B visa was intended to help U.S. companies fill rare, high-skilled roles when American expertise was unavailable. Instead, it has become a way for corporations to import cheap labor rather than pay |Americans fair wages.

The article reports:

President Donald Trump’s two recent executive orders, one imposing a $100,000 annual fee on H-1B visas and the other launching the “Gold Card” fast-track residency program, represent the most significant immigration reforms in decades.

They flip the incentive structure that has for years favored multinational corporations and global outsourcing firms over American workers, while also tackling long-ignored national security risks.

As a policy, open borders is one area where Democrats and many Republicans agree. Democrats want new voters, while the Chamber of Commerce and Wall Street Journal Republicans want cheap labor. President George W. Bush, backed by Senator John McCain, in 2007, pushed for “comprehensive immigration reform,” a euphemism for amnesty, for millions of illegal aliens, which fortunately failed a US Senate vote.

Enter President Trump, the only president in my lifetime who has recognized that America has a sovereign border. Even President Reagan failed to repair our dysfunctional immigration system. He signed an amnesty bill into law, which NPR heralded as “a Reagan legacy,” and it unsurprisingly turned California from a red to a blue state. No wonder NPR loved it.

The Chamber of Commerce is no longer a friend of the American worker. They support corporate profit margins over American workers. They were also supporters of the Common Core curriculum that has helped lower the test scores of American students.

The article notes:

This approach addresses two issues simultaneously. First, it monetizes efficiency by having applicants pay for expedited processing instead of taxpayers funding an overcrowded immigration system. Second, it makes sure that those who skip ahead are likely to be job creators and investors, not liabilities. As CBS News reported, Trump explained: “We’re going to have great people coming in, and they’re going to be paying.”

Such programs are common. Portugal offers a Golden Visa program that requires a five-year investment in monetary assets for residency, which is less direct and efficient compared to Trump’s proposal.

For conservatives cautious about unrestricted immigration, this presents a strong bargain: America gains capital instead of bearing costs.

Unsurprisingly, Big Tech is unhappy. Venture capitalists argue that the $100,000 H-1B fee could hurt America’s competitiveness, but this overlooks how the current system has suppressed domestic innovation by discouraging Americans from pursuing STEM careers. Genuine innovation thrives when American students and workers believe they can compete fairly.

Foreign governments have also expressed concern, especially India, which depends heavily on exporting workers to the U.S.

Not everyone in America wants to ‘put America first.’

Rewriting History

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On Wednesday, Breitbart posted an article about a recent statement by former President Barack Obama. The headline of the article is “Obama Implies Trump to Blame for Charlie Kirk Assassination: ‘Extreme Views Were Not in My White House.’” Wow! Talk about not reading the room.

The article reports:

Obama was interviewed onstage by Steve Scully at the Jefferson Educational Society in Erie, Pennsylvania.

He mourned Kirk’s death, saying it was “horrific,” but made sure to recite an (inaccurate) laundry list of Kirk’s more controversial statements, including a false claim that Kirk claimed black women were stupid.

Obama then said that Trump wanted to use Kirk’s assassination as “a rationale for trying to silence discussion around who we are as a country and what direction we should go.” He then claimed that when he had been in the White House, “those extreme views were not in my White House. I wasn’t embracing them. I wasn’t empowering them. I wasn’t putting the weight of the United States government behind extremist views.”

In fact, it was Obama who inaugurated an era of division and extremism. On the campaign trail in 2008, he encouraged his supporters to confront friends and neighbors, and “argue with them, get in their face.”

As president, Obama backed the violent Occupy Wall Street protests. Most significantly, he fanned the Trayvon Martin controversy into a racially divisive crisis, turning to radical Al Sharpton — a demagogue so toxic that Obama had once refused to have anything to do with him, until he needed black support. Obama also embraced the destructive Black Lives Matter movement, which would go on to cause nationwide chaos.

The article reminds us:

In his remarks on Tuesday, Obama also praised moderate Republicans as an alternative to Trump, such as Utah Gov. Spencer Cox — forgetting that he had spurned even moderate Republicans like Paul Ryan. When Ryan, then the chair of the House Budget Committee, proposed reforming entitlements, Obama invited Ryan to a speech on the subject, and then condemned him, to his face.

Obama later said he regretted doing so, and that he did not realize Ryan would actually be in the room. But today Obama shows no such contrition about contributing to a toxic political climate in which the left, more than the right, feels violence can be justified.

President Obama began his political career as a community organizer. He never really left that role.

Who Is Actually In Charge?

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On Monday, John Hinderaker at Power Line Blog posted an article asking the question, “Who Runs the Executive Branch?” During the past four years, that was a very appropriate question, but it is still an appropriate question.

The article reports:

Under Article II of the Constitution, the President is the executive branch. But over the years, Congress has tried to limit the power of the President by establishing a number of “independent” agencies–the SEC, the FDIC, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, and so on. In many cases, Congress has purported to limit the President’s ability to fire employees of those “independent” agencies, even though they are part of the executive branch and nominally under his control.

Democrats like this arrangement, since the agencies are staffed overwhelmingly by Democrats. They have served to undermine every Republican president of the last generation. Until now, Republican Presidents have generally put up with the fact that they do not effectively control the executive branch, but President Trump has moved to assert his proper constitutional authority in several ways.

Most notably, in February he issued an executive order which we wrote about here. It asserted, in several ways, his authority over the “independent” agencies. He has also fired a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve for cause, and, more importantly, he has fired other executive branch officials without cause, as should be his prerogative under Article II.

This has given rise to the vitally important case of Slaughter v. Trump. Rebecca Slaughter was a Federal Trade Commissioner. President Trump fired her without asserting any “cause,” even though the Federal Trade Commission Act says that a Commissioner can be removed by the President only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” The administration takes the position–correctly, I think–that this limitation on the President’s control of the executive branch is unconstitutional.

The article concludes:

What is being teed up here is, ultimately, an epic battle between Congress and the President. Democrats are on the side of Congress, mostly because Congress has, in turn, ceded power to the Administrative State, which is overwhelmingly Democratic but which, as Professor Philip Hamburger among others has persuasively argued, is essentially unconstitutional. Republicans are now mostly on the President’s side, because the current President is a Republican, and because they have seen how the Administrative State has become a permanent and unaccountable fourth branch of government.

Of all the battles to which the Trump administration has given rise, this one may, in the end, be the most important.

The decision on this matter will determine whether or not we go back to the Republic our Founding Fathers created–do the checks and balances put in place in our Constitution still apply?

Breaking Up The Logjam

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On Sunday, The Daily Caller reported that the Senate is planning to break up the logjam holding back President Trump’s appointments.

The article reports:

Senate Republicans are on the verge of breaking Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s stranglehold over the confirmation process, ending seven months of unprecedented obstruction that has sought to prevent President Donald Trump from staffing his administration.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is expected to invoke the rarely-used “nuclear option” to reform Senate rules allowing for the simultaneous confirmation of lower-level executive branch nominees as early as Monday, a senior Republican aide told the Daily Caller News Foundation. The historic rules change could grant the more than 100 civilian nominees who have been blocked from their postings due to Democrats’ persistent delay tactics a swift confirmation vote before the Senate is scheduled to go on recess on Sept. 19.

…Thune organized a working group in August after negotiations with Democrats to clear the backlog of executive branch nominees collapsed. The cohort included Republican Sens. Katie Britt of Alabama, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Eric Schmitt of Missouri and Ted Budd of North Carolina.

The Senate is there to advise and consent–not to obstruct.

The article notes:

Senate Republicans’ imminent rules change comes after former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid used the “nuclear option” during former President Barack Obama’s second term to lower the threshold required to confirm executive branch and judicial nominees. Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also invoked the “nuclear option” to eliminate the 60-vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees and cut debate time on most presidential nominees.

Though the proposed rules change is likely to benefit Democrats the next time they control the Senate and the White House, Senate Republicans have argued that Democrats’ nomination blockade is not sustainable. Despite Thune holding more votes than any Senate in 35 years, the Trump administration is on track to confirm the fewest nominees in recent memory.

“By the end of the 119th Congress (1/2/2027), the Senate is on track to confirm just 426 nominees, the fewest in history, and less than half of what other Presidents have averaged since 2000,” Britt, a member of the working group, wrote on X on Wednesday.

This is not the kind of history we need to be making.

The article concludes:

“We have never seen a time where the opposition party has literally blocked and forced the president and his team and us here as the majority in the Senate to go through all the machinations of trying to get a nominee across the finish line,” Thune said during a Senate GOP leadership press conference on Wednesday. 

“So this is of the Democrats’ making,” Thune continued. “There isn’t anything right now that they want to vote for that he has his fingerprints on, and getting his team in place is absolutely essential. It’s part of governing this country, and we’re going to move forward.”